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Ben Contreras

BY definition, a State of the Nation Address (Sona) is “a constitutional obligation and yearly tradition, wherein the chief executive reports on the status of the country, unveils the government’s agenda for the coming years and proposes to Congress certain legislative measures.”

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What can a President report on his first term or to be exact, barely a month upon assumption of office? Except for the performance of the National Police and the Armed Forces on the promises of the President on what to do against the drug problem besetting the country, the rest are action plans to address various concerns that affect our society, nation and relations with the international communities.

Every prepared speech is laden with rosy pictures and words meant to satisfy the audience. But a prepared speech can never come straight from the heart. For that alone, we saw our President, several times, ignore the prepared speech and resorted to a more extemporaneous one that comes from depth of his heart, bereft of flattery.

Our President is obviously not a good orator. But certainly, he has a good heart. One may not like his way of doing things at the moment, but his acts were never meant to gain points but for the future of the next generations.

President Duterte promised a clean government. So far, I saw no reason to doubt him. But for the people around him and government employees under him down to the lowest level, it is going to be a great challenge, far greater than his eyes can see and his ears can hear. So, it would now depend on these people to obey or not and their willingness to test the waters and risk punishment.

Thus far, it’s been the most peaceful Sona we’ve ever had. The militant groups were there not only to protest, albeit peacefully, they were also there to support a government for change, aptly exemplified by the protesters’ cleaning up the surroundings where they marched.

Some supporters were dismayed by not seeing the expected, like it’s going to be bombastic, the revelation of some names involved in anomalies or drugs, like amending our political system focusing on party turncoatism, the dynasty issue, etc., but in general, it was the most down-to-earth Sona so far.

William Guialani claims to be the wedding godson of Sen. Pimentel from whom he learned many things, among which is the fight against anomalies and corruption in the government.

“Subo kayo ko nga tiliwala niining mga panghitabo nga gikahilangbigitan ni Mayor Moreno, nagpakita sila (the Pimentels) ug suporta ni Moreno nga nakasupak sa iyang gipang-amahan nga Local Government Code of the Philippines.” (I am sad that amid these events involving Mayor Moreno, the Pimentels have shown support to Moreno who has violated the Local Government Code of the Philippines which he [Pimentel] authored.)

What’s Guialani up to anyway? I surmise he is going to be the same “kuto” as he was before his arrest which he suspects Moreno was responsible for.

A quote for today from a movie personality: “I like when I don’t have to be careful about what I say. That is how I know I am with the right people.”

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